UNCATEGORIZED

Worship Is…

12 August 2008

UNASSIGNED

These two simple words seem to begin more conversations, more arguments, and more dissension than almost any other two in all human languages. Wars have been fought over these words. Churches have split over these words. People of all ages have been captivated by them, devoted to them, and scarred from them.

And now I’m going to tell you what I think they mean.

But first understand where I come from.

I am one who has been captivated by these words. I grew up in a Christian home, convinced that I knew everything there was to know about anything. And then I went to a Christian night club and we sang songs together. Only instead of an organ or piano they had a guitar. And drums. And energy. And passion. And then I learned that this was worship. I was captivated by this feeling and I wanted to do everything possible to keep it, sustain it, and replicate it.

So I went home, devoted to it, and began studying. I learned to play the guitar (because that’s where all good worship seemed to start) and I scoured the scriptures, studying the unique nuances and differences between praise (the fast, jump-up-and-down-and-sing songs that everyone loves) and worship (the slow, God-is-my-girlfriend songs that you close a worship set with to make it mean something).

But then one day I sat back and watched what was happening all around me.

A chord would be struck and masses of people would immediately strike the picturesque ‘worship pose’. (You know the one – legs shoulder length apart, eyes closed, arms raised at least above your waist, and a painful look of agony on your face.) This thing that I had been so deeply moved by, this thing that I had studied and worked so hard at, this thing that was supposed to be the truest thing ever imaginable had become a mindless habit. None of there had to think about what we were doing. The music began and our eyes were closed. That was what worship had become.

After being burned by the worship phenomenon I began to observe everything differently.

Maybe worship wasn’t just the emotional part of my day (besides, it’s always so hard to tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and the ‘warm fuzzies’). Maybe worship was more than just saying ‘worship is a lifestyle’ but then just singing all the time. Maybe worship was an awareness that I could always have, a posture that I could always hold, a presence that I could always recognize.

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